My Favorite Has Started A Live Broadcast!

“Ugh…”

My body was screaming that it wanted more sleep, but no matter how tightly I squeezed my eyes shut, the sunlight penetrating through my thin eyelids was waking me up.

Sunlight, huh? I instinctively knew I had woken up late again, but I still flailed my arms around, searching for the blanket to pull over my head.

Just five more minutes.

“Mmmm…”

When I opened my eyes again, it was 1 p.m. I wasn’t sure if I had really slept for just five more minutes or for a few more hours, but either way, I had woken up quite late.

Since I didn’t feel like I could sleep anymore, I slowly pushed myself up. As I tossed off the blanket, my long white hair came into view. No matter how many times I saw it, I felt like I would never get used to it.

“…First, I should… wash up…”

Is this really okay? Even though this is my body, I couldn’t shake off the feeling of guilt. But this is something I’d have to get used to eventually… I’ll just leave it to my future self. For now, I’ll allow myself to feel a little embarrassed.

I took off my hoodie, pulled out a short-sleeved T-shirt from my large bag, and headed into the bathroom.

The small light in the bathroom flickered on, illuminating every corner, and I checked to see if the water was still running. I hadn’t been home in a month, so it would be normal for the water to have been shut off.

“…Oh!”

Luckily, water poured out from the showerhead. Electricity was still running, and even the water hadn’t been cut off.

I spent a moment in silent gratitude to the landlord, then tightly closed my eyes as I stripped off my underwear.

“Ugh…”

I could feel a slight discomfort as I undressed, but I quickly filled my head with other thoughts to distract myself and finished undressing.

I squinted as I adjusted the water temperature, gently touching the stream of water from the showerhead with my hand.

“Ah!”

The water was freezing cold. I hurriedly turned up the heat, and finally, warm water began to flow.

As the warm water heated my chilled body, I stared at the long hair that flowed down to my waist. The pure white strands resting on my hand looked too natural to have been dyed. The hair trailed down over my narrow shoulders and fell past my hand… Ah!

I was admiring my hair when I quickly shut my eyes at the sight of the large lumps of fat that had suddenly appeared in front of me—probably the cause of my shoulder stiffness.

“…Phew… That was close…”

Normally, I would use a single pump of shampoo, but today I used three times the usual amount to wash my hair. I’ll have to cut it short later.

I spent about 20 minutes washing my body and another 20 minutes putting on underwear and clothes. My hair was long, so drying it took a lot of time, too. If I kept this up, it would definitely become a problem.

After drying off the remaining moisture on my body with a hairdryer, I wrapped myself tightly in my blanket and started drying my hair.

“Ugh… electricity bill… water bill…”

Wishing I could adjust to this situation as quickly as possible, I began cleaning the house.

A month’s worth of dust couldn’t be tackled with just a duster. I grabbed a broom that had been sitting next to the duster. It wasn’t the enormous kind you’d see in the countryside, but it was perfect for cleaning a small house like mine. First, I opened the small window where people’s feet were visible and vigorously shook out the blanket. I repeated the process with my pillow, and dust scattered visibly into the air. It looked like the window wasn’t enough. Even though it would make the house a little chilly, it was better than having dust accumulate inside and get into my lungs.

I opened the door and propped it open with my foot. A sharp gust of wind made me shiver slightly, but I was in the freshest state I’d been in for days, so I could endure it for a while.

I hurriedly dusted the house, sweeping the dust onto the floor, then used the broom to gather it all into one spot.

Swoosh, swoosh.

Once I saw that a ball of dust had formed, I quickly fetched the dustpan and emptied the dust into a trash bag. The house looked much cleaner now, and I rushed to close the window and door.

“Whoa…”

The inside of the fridge was just as I had expected. Almost all the side dishes and ingredients had gone bad, filling the air with a foul stench. I prepared a black trash bag and threw away all the rotten items, placing them beside the already bulging trash bag.

I put on the hoodie and black pants I had worn yesterday and went out to throw away the trash.

“…Hmm?”

Suddenly, my phone alarm went off. With the lighter trash bag in one hand, I pulled my phone out of my pocket.

Landlord: Are you discharged from the hospital?

Ah.

I hurried to throw away the trash, walking for about five minutes. Once I was done and had my hands free again, I quickly turned my phone back on.

– Yes! I came home yesterday! The rent is…

Wait a minute… How much money do I have left in my account?

I quickly checked my balance and saw that I had about 500,000 won left. After paying the rent, I’d have 250,000 won left. Of course, this was Seoul. And with the cost of food and my sister’s living expenses added, I’d be running a deficit. Even though my sister said she still had some money left, most of the items in the large bag at home were clothes. I wasn’t sure exactly how many pieces I had, but if I had spent a lot on them, it might not be enough.

I need to find a part-time job.

– Yes! I came home yesterday! I can pay the rent now!

Landlord: Really? Okay, I’ll come by a little later.

From what I know, my landlord loves coffee. Aside from coming to collect the rent, every time I ran into her, she was always holding a cup of coffee.

I quickly went out to look around the area.

The place where I used to work part-time was the closest, but I wasn’t keen on seeing the boss and the employees there. I came out to the main road and entered a nearby café.

“…Hiring staff…?”

Just as I was about to enter, I noticed a welcoming sign on the transparent glass door. The working hours were from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. The schedule wasn’t bad, and the hourly wage was 1,000 won higher than the minimum wage.

How is no one taking this?!

Fearing someone else might snag it, I hurriedly took down the job notice and joined the line behind four people.

As soon as I entered the café, I could feel many eyes on me. I wondered if I should put my hood back on, but since I was here to buy coffee and inquire about the job, I decided against it.

After waiting for a few minutes, my turn came.

“Welco… uh, welcome…”

“Hello, I’d like an iced Americano and a hot chocolate latte, both to-go.”

“Y-Yes! One iced Americano and one hot chocolate latte, both to-go!”

The staff, who had been discreetly glancing at me earlier, suddenly got very busy.

In less than a minute, the drinks I had ordered were ready to go.

“Excuse me…”

“Y-Yes?!”

When I spoke, the staff member looked startled and widened her eyes at what I handed over.

“…I’d like to work here…”

“…Wait a moment… Boss!”

The staff member went to the back of the store and called for the boss.

A young woman, who I assumed was the boss, came out from what looked like a break room.

“What’s with all the shouting… oh.”

“Hello!”

I tried to make a good first impression by smiling naturally and bowing my head.

“…You’re hired. When can you start?”

“Uh… tomorrow…”

“Great! Fantastic! We’ve been short-staffed, so this is perfect! Come early tomorrow! And wear the uniform… Have you worked at a café before?!”

“Yes… for a few months…”

“You’re the best! See you tomorrow!”

“Y-Yes…”

With the boss being strangely enthusiastic, I left the café.

Holding my coffee, I rushed back home at a fast pace.

“Ha! Hah…! Whew…”

Panting awkwardly, I finally reached home, where I saw a familiar person sitting on the steps in front of the door.

“Ugh… should I call or what…”

There was my landlord, messing with her phone, looking annoyed as she scratched her head.

“Uh… landlord?”

“Hm? …Oh… for real?”

With wide eyes, she slowly climbed the steps toward me.

“Yes?”

“Well, since you didn’t say anything for a while and didn’t come out even when I came by, I asked your sister about you, but I never imagined something like that could’ve happened… She sent me some photos, too.”

“Ah… Didn’t you hear my sister called 119?”

“I don’t live here; I live a bit farther away.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, honestly, for a while, I thought you had run away. But then your sister sent me a whole essay of explanations over several days… thousands of characters long. How could I not believe that?”

I’ll have to make my sister’s favorite food when I visit him this weekend.

“…Thank you.”

“No problem… but your eye color is really something… I didn’t realize because all I got were photos of you sleeping…”

“I get surprised every time I see them too… Haha…”

“And your height… Damn… and what’s with the chest?”

“Haha…”

“Tsk… Anyway, I just came by to check in on you, so you can pay the rent next month.”

“Huh?”

“It’s going to take a while to adjust, right? You’ve never been late with rent before…”

“Are you serious…?”

“Yeah. Is that coffee for me?”

“Yes…!”

“Thanks. See you next time.”

With her long brown hair swaying, the landlord grabbed the coffee and walked off in the opposite direction from where I came.

“…”

Back home, I sat on the bed, sipping my coffee, and found myself thinking about a lot of things.

I’m surrounded by good people.

I found a part-time job. My rent deadline was extended.

I still had plenty of time left. Up until now, I had spent it playing games or watching Chocoa’s replays, just wasting time. But there was something I wanted to try.

Slowly, I got up from the bed and sat down in front of the computer. As usual, the machine whirred noisily, and the monitor lit up.

I logged into Twitch, as I always did, and clicked to start a broadcast.

Broadcast Title

Baraa – Hello.